Independence
by Nine Labeled Keys
Summary: After James and Lily graduated from Hogwarts, James Potter endures a bad full moon and ends up in St. Mungo's. Trainee Healer Lily Evans heals him, but James Potter just cannot forget the red head. Not everyone can be as feircely independent as Lily Evans


_**In case I've confused anyone—my old pen name was xrainbowsx **_

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Lily closed the door to her apartment, slipped the key in the lock and clicked back the bolt. Though she could have done this with magic, she preferred doing it the muggle way- usually. When she was running late for work, however, there could be exceptions.

She sighed, glancing at her watch and hoisting her purse higher on her on her shoulder. She walked down the length of the hallway, waving to her older neighbor who was locking his door to leave for work as well.

She strode briskly into the park, straightening her blue stretchy top as she walked. Once she reached her favorite spot, she apperated.

St. Mungo's arching ceiling rose above her, giving her the feeling that she was free, though she was inside. It was arched that way to give the people who came in here sick or with the sick a place to release their grief to.

Walking quickly to her locker, she straightened her jeans and pulled her pale yellow robes over her head. Though yellow did not look great on her, it was a passable color. Lily, however, did not care, putting such material things as how she looked behind her immaterial desire to become a full-fledged healer.

Reporting for duty, she was directed to room 459, where, upon entering the room, she swept her hair up into a pony to keep it out of her way and set upon the task of mending the wounds on the patient in front of her.

The man's face was covered in cuts, like his arms and legs. His back was staining the white hospital sheets red. He needed attention, though with magical sustaining spells, he would have been okay for maybe another hour.

Taking a break from her work, she reached for the papers detailing his situation. He had been admitted to St. Mungo's half an hour ago, he had said he had crashed on a broom into a bog of nettles. Though his situation was not bad for magical standards, he seemed to have run into a patch of particularly vicious nettles.

Lily turned to survey her charge again. He seemed to be sleeping; his breathing was a little quicker than someone unconscious would have. She inspected his wounds. She had stopped the worst of the bleeding and decided to try a simple spell that would close the wounds. She waved her wand over his upper arm, but to her dismay, the wound closed but opened again.

Over the next ten minutes, she tried a variety of spells, none of which seemed to make much of a difference. Worried that there might be something more serious happening here than just a lot of scrapes, Lily stuck her head out into the hall, looking for one of her green clad superiors.

She did not see anyone close by, so she cast her patronus to find someone and moved back into the room.

A few minutes later, a woman with graying dirty blond hair entered the room.

"Lily? What seems to be the problem?" she asked, genuinely worried. There was very little Lily Evans couldn't fix, especially when it came to this department.

"Well, I've tried everything I can think of to try and heal his wounds, but nothing seems to work. I even tried _Fibulas_!" she exclaimed. Fibulas was an incredibly powerful and complicated spell designed to draw skin back together.

"Hmm… Who did he arrive with? Maybe they know something more about what happened to him," suggested the elderly healer, examining the papers in front of her.

Lily nodded and left the room, walking to the level's waiting area. She conversed quickly with the receptionist, asking him if the man in 459 had had someone else accompanying him. The man pointed, and she turned around, approaching a dark haired man who was examining his fingernails.

"Excuse me?" she asked. The man looked up. She took a sharp breath, the face looking up at her an extremely familiar one.

"Lily?" he asked.

"Sirius, is that _James_ in that room?" she asked, looking incredulous.

"Yes." replied Sirius Black. "Is he okay?"

"We can't get his wounds to close." Lily replied. "Can you tell me anything more about what happened to him? It wasn't a nettle patch, was it?"

"No. Lily, did Remus ever tell you…?"

"Yes, but what has that got to… Oh god, what happened?" Lily's emerald eyes sparkled with worry as she remembered that Remus Lupin was a werewolf.

Sirius stood up, leaning towards her. "James was in an animagus form when it happened. Remus was vicious tonight. It was worse than I've ever seen before. That's why I… brought him… here." He seemed worried, like he had made the wrong decision.

"Thank you Sirius. I think I have a better understanding of the situation and will be able to treat him more aptly." Lily said, a little louder.

"You will be able to fix him?" Sirius said, an anxious expression on his face. James, who was like Sirius' brother and twin, meant more to him than anyone else in the world.

"All I can do is try," she replied, then turned and rushed back to room 459, hoping she would be able to do something to help.

Lily Evans and James Potter had never been great friends, but though Lily had not liked him in her first six years at Hogwarts, in her seventh year they had gotten onto better terms. She would do everything she could to help him, because she did not want James to die, even if she hadn't liked him much.

Lily entered the room. The older woman turned to her. "Do you know anything more?" she asked.

"Yes," Lily replied. She moved to the other side of the room, taking down a book on treating cuts and scrapes. She scanned the pages for something that might work. She found a spell, and, crossing her fingers, she moved back to the lifeless figure on the bed. Waving her wand over his arm, she tried the spell. It worked, somewhat. Two wounds closed, but one remained open.

Quickly and with excitement, Lily waved her wand and closed the majority of the cuts. Only the worst ones remained open.

"Good thinking Lily. That one worked well. Also, good thinking on the spell to slow his blood loss." the healer said.

Lily nodded, examining her patient.

She turned back to the book behind her, nodding to the older woman as she excused herself to go oversee another patient.

Lily searched, occasionally trying various spells she found. At the back of the book, however, there was a potion referenced that only took three hours, and might work. Nothing else had, and Lily had nothing to loose. She cast a few more spells over James to make sure he would be able to sustain the next few hours with little damage and rushed out of the room to the closet at the end of the hallway. She gathered her ingredients, pushing them all into a small black cauldron. As she passed the waiting room again, her wand slipped from her hair.

"Ahg!" she exclaimed, bending over to retrieve it. Now, some of the ingredients she had collected fell onto the floor, and she reached to pick them up but stumbled.

"Lily, here," said Sirius, helping her retrieve the fallen ingredients. They walked back to James' room together, Sirius helping Lily to carry everything.

Once they arrived there, Lily quickly brewed the potion, Sirius looking forlornly over his best friend.

"Lily, James is pretty pale," said Sirius worriedly.

"Try _Chilean maximum_," she suggested, stirring the bubbling liquid.

Soon, the potion was ready. "Sirius, will you prop him up?" she requested. Sirius complied, and Lily tipped the potion down James' throat. Immediately, the potion took effect. His cuts healed and he stirred. He sat up.

"Sirius? Last night was bad wasn't it?" he asked. Lily began clearing up the potion, cleaning the cauldron and putting away the book.

"Yeah, mate, it was," replied Sirius.

"Wait… Are we in _St. Mungos?"_ James sounded curious and shocked, but mostly worried. "How bad was it?"

"I thought you were going to die, honestly, mate. It was a miracle I could even get you to transform."

James sat up, his gaze alighting on the yellow clad red head. "Lily?" he asked, his voice strained and disbelieving.

"Yes. Hi, James," she said, turning around.

"Thanks."

"Of course."

And a few minutes later, James and Sirius left, leaving Lily.

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AN:

Hey guys.

Happy New Year! So this is the first chapter of my brand new story, Independence.

I am planning to post the next chapter pretty soon, but I don't know if I'll finish this story if there aren't enough people who enjoy it… So! Review, maybe, if you are of kind heart? Or at least subscribe… That is, of course, if you did enjoy it.

Love and happy 2011, everyone,

Achelle

PS. Has anyone seen Caleb?


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